I'm a Bear

Whew...what a day. Sometime last week I caught a sinus bug, and it hit me full force over the weekend. Sunday I hardly had a voice and since I was stuffed up and couldn't breath, being the nursery music leader just about killed me. Five nurseries is too many. Only we need that many, because we have that many nursery kids in our ward. But it means that I spent two hours singing yesterday. Bad idea. I came home and pretty much spent the rest of the day in bed.

I've been trying to catch up all day today. I feel a little bit better but not a lot. My kids are all on edge and cranky as can be. I think they've all got the same thing I've got. Maybe it's allergies?

The Scera emailed me late last night to tell me that they were cancelling Lincoln's choir class because they only have two students enrolled. I emailed them back and asked if I could switch him to a different class. I want him to be doing something i the performing arts category. I didn't hear back so I decided just to head up there this morning, and sort it all out in person. Five minutes before we got there, my phone dinged letting me know I had an email from them saying yes, Lincoln could switch classes, but the class I wanted him in didn't start until 10:30. I didn't have enough time to try and go home and then come back, so we just spent an hour before Lincoln's class doing school in the little room they have set up on the second floor for that purpose. It went ok, but we weren't as productive as we would have been at home. We took Lincoln to his class and then had another hour and a half to kill before it was over. I finished up Ivan's school with him, and then took the kids outside to play in the garden area. They have a really cool sundial out there, and also these little plaques in every flower bed that have inspirational quotes on them. I really like the one above from Gandhi. Ivan and Del were restless and on each other's nerves, Oliver was tired and needed a nap. I was frazzled, my sinuses were throbbing. Such a great morning.

 But at least Lincoln is in his class. It's called Triple Threat, which basically means they teach you singing, dancing, and acting, so that when you audition for parts in productions you are a "triple threat". It looks like a fun class, there are about 20 kids in there ranging in age from 6-11, and they'll put on a show or two throughout the year, so it meets all my criteria. And he had a really good time, which is important to me also. It will be better next week because we won't be an hour earlier than need be.

It was noon before we left Orem, and my head was pounding. I so badly wanted to stop at Wendy's and just get lunch over with so I didn't have to deal with it when we got home. But my husband has been on this budgeting kick...his work paid for all it's employees to take the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University classes. So Aaron and I have been watching them. And they are great, they really are. Dave is entertaining, and all the things he says make a lot of sense. My only problem is that this course has turned my already thrift-conscious husband, into a maniac. He's got budget on the brain 24/7. I think he's trying to achieve some kind of record by accomplishing all seven Baby Steps in the next month. I want to throttle him...in the most loving way possible, that is. But I didn't want to hear about it, so no Wendy's for us today. Probably no Wendy's for us ever again until we've saved up enough money for all our kids and grand kids to graduate from collage debt free. And it's not like I'm anti-budget, and it's not like I'm a wild unruly spender who's racks up millions of dollars of credit card debt. I'm neither of those things. We're the family that got through Aaron's bachelor's degree with three babies and came out debt free.

So we came home. Ollie fell asleep in the car, so of course he didn't want to go back down for his nap when we got home. Lincoln was throwing a huge irrational fit because Ivan got out of the car before he did. Which is really unlike him, and what tipped me off that maybe he wasn't feeling so well either. He was beyond reasoning with, and starting throwing things and kicking the walls, so I took him upstairs to his room, brought him a sandwich up there, and told him to eat it and go directly to bed. He protested of course, but he was asleep in five minutes, and slept for about three and half hours. Ivan slept too, of his own free will, so now I'm thinking maybe he doesn't feel that great either. Stupid sinuses! Del didn't sleep, but I made her have quiet time. And Oliver rolled around on the living room floor while I tried cleaning our disaster area of a kitchen. It was a disaster, remember how I said I'd been MIA most of the weekend because we were either at soccer, pirate night, or I wasn't feeling well? Ex.Plo.Sion. Three days worth. Not a fun mess to tackle by yourself. But...I am a stubborn and independent individual (probably my two best and two worst qualities) so I pushed through, and came out on top with a clean kitchen. I mopped the floor while the kids watched a Magic School Bus episode, and then it was time to go get Aaron.

Might I mention that we need another car. Not want...need. We've been a one-car family for almost 8 years. And so far it's never really been an issue until this year. I feel like our kids are starting to have places they need to be and that driving to and from Aaron's work twice a day is starting to become a huge inconvenience. For one thing, it eats into my school time in the mornings. I can't start school until after 9am when we get home from taking Aaron. For another it prevents me from making dinner before Aaron gets home, because I can't leave in the middle of cooking to run and get Aaron from work, so I have to wait to start dinner until after we pick him up, which means we don't eat until 6:00-6:30, which would be ok, except that recently we've had soccer, or swimming, or Elder's Quoram meetings, or whatever else in the evenings. Anyways, my vote is that we buy another car. A truck actually, because we have a lot of uses for a truck too, but I won't go into those at the moment. But we won't get another car until we save up enough to pay cash for one. *Read paragraph above on the budgeting epidemic that has recently struck our household. Which would be ok, except that Aaron's bike tires have decided to go on strike, and refuse to hold air in them, no matter what we put on them or in them. And ironically, new bike tires cost money.

We had a nice dinner, and a nice family home evening. Aaron helped me put the kids to bed, and then went off to work on the website. I won't go there. Not tonight, and not in the mood I'm in. I think it would be best for everyone living under this roof, if I took some NyQuil and went directly to bed. I am cranky, I can tell, and I'm sure I haven't been much fun to live with the last couple of days. Sometimes it would be nice if I could turn into a bear, and just hibernate for the duration, yeah? Yeah.

Over and out.